Those pesky Pharisees are stalking Jesus and His disciples again in today's passage. They've become obsessed with Him. They see Him as a threat to the religious system because He challenges their authority by pointing out where they have added man's laws to God's laws. They see Him as a threat to the nation because under Roman rule there can be no Jewish king of Israel, and Jesus is quickly becoming so popular with the masses that the religious leaders fear the nation will declare Him king. In John's gospel we find that the fears of the Pharisees are justified, for after Jesus feeds the five thousand He has to temporarily hide away because He realizes "they intended to come and make Him king by force". (John 6:15)
Today we learn that the Pharisees have decided to attack Jesus on matters pertaining to the Sabbath laws. God commanded the people to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy by performing no work (Exodus 20:8-10) but the Pharisees have added a lot of ridiculous stipulations to this commandment. They have made the keeping of the Sabbath so difficult that about all a person can safely do is sit still. In our passage this morning they are going to try to equate gleaning food from the fields due to hunger (not a violation of the Sabbath) with harvesting the fields (a violation of the Sabbath).
"One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as His disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain." (Mark 2:23) Matthew's gospel provides the reason behind what the disciples are doing, "His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them." (Matthew 12:1) Hunger is something we all deal with every day of our lives. When our bellies begin to growl, we begin to look for something to eat. There's nothing sinful about the disciples being hungry. There's also nothing sinful about them plucking heads of grain and eating them to satisfy their hunger. But the Pharisees find fault with it anyway. "The Pharisees said to Him, 'Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" (Mark 2:24)
Jesus is always so unruffled when confronted by the Pharisees. They come across as shrill and childish while He remains calm and dignified. "He answered, 'Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions." (Mark 2:25-26) We find the account of David and his men eating this bread in 1 Samuel 21:1-6. The Pharisees have no criticism for David, who actually did break the law, and they have no criticism for the priest who unlawfully gave the bread to David. Yet they try to turn the simple act of eating on the Sabbath into the act of working the fields. It is not so much the disciples the Pharisees disapprove of, but Jesus. Jesus is the rabbi and as such the Pharisees feel He should rebuke the disciples and force them to remain hungry until the next day. The real sin here is that Jesus and the disciples are going hungry at all! Why aren't the crowds who so ardently follow Jesus giving Him anything to eat? Why are the Pharisees not compassionate toward these hungry men to the point of inviting them home to share with them some food that was prepared the day before the Sabbath? The Lord commanded the people through the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel to feed the hungry. King Solomon also taught about feeding the hungry. The real sinners here are the ones who are able to look upon the distress of their fellow man without feeling moved to help.
"Then He said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.'" (Mark 2:23-28) The Lord created the Sabbath primarily for the welfare of human beings. The God who created our bodies knows how quickly our bodies will break down if we don't allow them to rest. This is why He commanded no one to work on the Sabbath and for no one to force their servant or any of their animals to work on the Sabbath. But this does not mean we are to ignore the urgent needs of other human beings in order to keep a rule, for there are many instances in the Bible where God appears to prefer mercy over the keeping of various rules and even over the bringing of the required sacrifices. The disciples have not sinned, but even if they had, which is worse: to break a Sabbath rule or to allow human beings to suffer in hunger? If the Pharisees feel these men are sinning, they could stop the sin by giving them something to eat.
Jesus puts an end to the discussion by pulling rank. He is the Lord. If He says the men are not sinning, then His opinion is greater than the Pharisees' opinion. The Pharisees, however, are sinning, although Jesus doesn't come out and accuse them of it at this point in time. Their hearts are hard. They feel no compassion for these hungry men. They are failing to follow the word of God which tells them to feed the hungry person even if that person is someone they hate, "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink." (Proverbs 25:21) The word of God doesn't say, "Feed the hungry unless it's the Sabbath". The Pharisees withdraw for now, but they will be back in tomorrow's passage accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath by healing a man in the synagogue.
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